Urban guerrilla redirects here. For the HawkwindHawkwind are an English rock band, one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes. They are also a noted precursor to punk rock....
song, see Urban Guerrilla.
Urban guerrilla refers to someone who fights a
governmentA government is the body within a community, political entity or organization which has the authority to make and enforce rules, laws and regulations.....
using
unconventional warfareUnconventional warfare is the opposite of conventional warfare. Where conventional warfare is used to reduce an opponent's military capability, unconventional warfare is an attempt to achieve military victory through acquiescence, capitulation, or clandestine support for one side of an existing...
in an
urbanAn urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
environment. During the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
, many were on the left-wing of the political spectrum. However, nothing in armed struggle makes it inherently left or right-wing.
The urban guerrilla phenomenon is essentially one of
industrialised societyIndustrialisation is the process of social and economic change whereby a human group is transformed from a pre-industrial society into an industrial one...
, resting both on the presence of large urban agglomerations where hideouts are easy to find and on a theory of
alienationIn sociology and critical social theory, alienation refers to an individual's estrangement from traditional community and others in general. It is considered by many that the atomism of modern society means that individuals have shallower relations with other people than they would normally...
proper to the modern society of mass consumption.
Historically guerrilla warfare was a rural phenomenon, it was not until the 1960s that the limitations of this form were clearly demonstrated.
Urban guerrilla redirects here. For the HawkwindHawkwind are an English rock band, one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes. They are also a noted precursor to punk rock....
song, see Urban Guerrilla.
Urban guerrilla refers to someone who fights a
governmentA government is the body within a community, political entity or organization which has the authority to make and enforce rules, laws and regulations.....
using
unconventional warfareUnconventional warfare is the opposite of conventional warfare. Where conventional warfare is used to reduce an opponent's military capability, unconventional warfare is an attempt to achieve military victory through acquiescence, capitulation, or clandestine support for one side of an existing...
in an
urbanAn urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
environment. During the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
, many were on the left-wing of the political spectrum. However, nothing in armed struggle makes it inherently left or right-wing.
Theory and history of the urban guerrilla
The urban guerrilla phenomenon is essentially one of
industrialised societyIndustrialisation is the process of social and economic change whereby a human group is transformed from a pre-industrial society into an industrial one...
, resting both on the presence of large urban agglomerations where hideouts are easy to find and on a theory of
alienationIn sociology and critical social theory, alienation refers to an individual's estrangement from traditional community and others in general. It is considered by many that the atomism of modern society means that individuals have shallower relations with other people than they would normally...
proper to the modern society of mass consumption.
Historically guerrilla warfare was a rural phenomenon, it was not until the 1960s that the limitations of this form were clearly demonstrated. The technique was almost entirely ineffective when used outside of the later colonial environment, as was shown by the Cuban sponsored efforts in Latin America during the 1960s culminating in the hopeless
focoThe foco theory of revolution by way of guerrilla warfare, also known as focalism , was inspired by Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, based upon his experiences surrounding the rebel army's victory in the 1959 Cuban Revolution, and formalized as such by Régis Debray...
campaign headed by
Che GuevaraErnesto "Che" Guevara commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che, or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, military theorist, and major figure of the Cuban Revolution...
in Bolivia that culminated in his death. The need for the target government to be simultaneously incompetent, iniquitous, and politically isolated was rarely met.
The failure of rural insurgency forced the discontented to find new avenues for action, essentially random terrorism aimed at creating maximum publicity, provoking the targeted regimes into excessive repression and so inciting the general population to join a wider revolutionary struggle. This movement found its mentor in the leader of the ephemeral
Ação Libertadora NacionalThe Ação Libertadora Nacional , the National Liberation Action, was a Brazilian communist guerrilla movement created in the end of 1967 to stand against the military dictatorship of 1964-1985. It was founded by Carlos Marighella after he got expelled from the Brazilian Communist Party....
, Carlos Marighela. Before his death during a bank robbery in 1969 he wrote
The Minimanual of Urban Guerrilla Warfare which, between the polemics, gave clear advice on strategy and was quickly adopted by others around the world.
In action no urban guerrilla movement has managed to move beyond the first portion of its operations - creating conditions where the government takes extreme repressive measures to limit the activities of the insurgents. The formation of a number of brutal military regimes in Latin America is directly linked to the efforts of guerrillas. However the next stage has never been achieved, a popular uprising to overthrow the government. Instead, the guerrillas are killed, captured, forced into exile, brought into government, or sufficiently marginalized to render them ineffective in achieving their stated goals.
Belgium
- Cellules Communistes Combattantes (CCC)
- Front Revolutionaire d' Action Prolétarienne (FRAP)
Brazil
Britain
- Scottish National Liberation Army
The Scottish National Liberation Army , sometimes dubbed the 'Tartan Terrorists', is a small militant group, which aims to bring about Scottish independence. The SNLA has been a proscribed organisation by the government in the United Kingdom...
- The MAC
Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru , abbreviated as MAC, was a paramilitary Welsh nationalist organisation, modelled to some degree on the Irish Republican Army, which was responsible for a number of bombing incidents between 1963 and 1969.MAC was initially set up in response to the flooding of the Afon...
- An Gof
An Gof is the name of a Cornish liberation group. The organisation takes its name from the trade of Michael Joseph , An Gof , being Cornish for The Smith, a leader of the Cornish Rebellion of 1497....
- Free Wales Army
The Free Wales Army was a paramilitary Welsh nationalist organisation, formed out of Lampeter, Mid Wales, by William Julian Cayo-Evans in 1963. Its objective was to establish an independent Welsh republic. The organization had no more than 20 members but claimed to have 2000.The FWA first...
- Cornish National Liberation Army
The Cornish National Liberation Army, abbreviated to CNLA, was a militant Cornish nationalist organisation that has threatened to carry out acts of vandalism and arson against commercial targets that it considers to be 'English'....
Canada
- The FLQ (Québec
Quebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
)
- Direct Action (organization)
- Wimmin's Fire Brigade
Chile
- The Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front
The Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front is a left-wing guerrilla movement in Chile, named for a figure in Chile's independence movement, Manuel Rodríguez. The group was founded on September 14, 1983 as an armed resistance against the Pinochet regime by the Communist Party of Chile...
(FPMR)
- The Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria
Revolutionary Left Movement is a Chilean political party founded on October 12, 1965. The group emerged from various student organizations and established a base of support among the trade unions and shantytowns of Santiago...
(MIR)
Ireland
- The IRA
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation which sought to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
- The Irish National Liberation Army
The Irish National Liberation Army or INLA is an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group that was formed on 8 December 1974. Its goal is to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a united Ireland....
- Saor Éire
- Irish Peoples Liberation Organisation
- The Official IRA
The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA was one of the two organisations—the other being the Provisional Irish Republican Army—that emerged from the split in the Irish Republican Army in 1969–70...
- Saor Uladh
Saor Uladh - were a short lived paramilitary organisation in Northern Ireland in the 1950s.Seen as a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army, they were formed in County Tyrone by Liam Kelly and Phil O'Donnell in 1953, with a political wing, Fianna Uladh, soon following...
- The Continuity IRA
- The Real IRA
- The IRLA
The Irish Republican Liberation Army is an Irish paramilitary "self-styled vigilante group" in support of a united Ireland. Although much of its origins are as of yet unknown, the IRLA had attracted attention with its threats of paramilitary action....
- Óglaigh na hÉireann
Óglaigh na hÉireann is a small republican paramilitary group that split from the Continuity Irish Republican Army in 2006.-Name:The Irish language title Óglaigh na hÉireann means "Warriors of Ireland"...
Philippines
- Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB)
- Red Scorpion Group
- Light A Fire Movement (LAFM)
- Sandigan army
USA
- The Black Liberation Army
The Black Liberation Army was an underground, black nationalist-Marxist militant organization that operated in the United States from 1970 to 1981...
- The May 19th Communist Movement
The May 19 Communist Organization, also referred to as the May 19 Communist Coalition, and M19CO, was a US-based, self-described revolutionary organization formed by splintered-off members of the Weather Underground...
- The Symbionese Liberation Army
The Symbionese Liberation Army was an American self-styled militant group active between 1973 and 1975 that considered itself a revolutionary vanguard army. The group committed bank robberies, two murders and other acts of violence.The S.L.A...
(SLA)
- The Weathermen
However, not all urban political violence can be labeled as
urban guerrilla. The
Black Panther PartyThe Black Panther Party was an African-American revolutionary organization established to promote Black Power, and by extension self-defense for blacks. It was active in the United States from the mid-1960s into the 1970s...
might not qualify, due to its public nature, although its policy of "self-defense" was interchangeable with a policy of armed struggle in "militarily occupied" African American communities. Similarly the Italian Autonomia movement, and the German Autonomen engaged in urban political violence, but not as urban guerrillas due to their policies of public, mass and non-deadly violence.
In the 1970s BBC comedy "
Citizen SmithCitizen Smith is a British television sitcom. The show was written by John Sullivan, who went on later to write Only Fools and Horses. The Pilot was transmitted on 12 April 1977 in the Comedy Special series of one-off plays, and the series properly ran from 3 November 1977 to 31 December...
" Wolfie Smith, the leader of the fictional "Tooting Popular Front" described himself as an Urban Guerrilla.
See also
- Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is the irregular warfare warfare and combat in which a small group of combatants use mobile military tactics in the form of ambushes and raids to combat a larger and less mobile formal army....
and unconventional warfareUnconventional warfare is the opposite of conventional warfare. Where conventional warfare is used to reduce an opponent's military capability, unconventional warfare is an attempt to achieve military victory through acquiescence, capitulation, or clandestine support for one side of an existing...
- Insurgency
An insurgency is an armed rebellion against a constituted authority when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognised as belligerents.[Oxford English Dictionary second edition 1989 "insurgent B. n...]
and Counterinsurgency
- Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.At present, there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism...
, Counter-terrorismCounter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed....
and anti-terrorist legislation
- Propaganda of the deed
Propaganda of the deed is a concept that promotes physical violence against political enemies as a way of inspiring the masses and catalyzing revolution. Propaganda of the deed may take many forms, but in many cases utilizes violence against people seen as threats to the working class...
- Strategy of tension
The strategy of tension is an alleged theory by which world powers divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, and false flag terrorist actions....
- State of exception
State of Exception may mean:* State of exception* State of Exception , a book written by Giorgio Agamben...
- False flag
False flag operations are covert operations conducted by governments, corporations, or other organizations which are designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of...
attacks
External links
- Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla by Carlos Marighella
Carlos Marighella , was a Brazilian guerrilla revolutionary and Marxist writer. Marighella's most famous contribution to guerrilla literature was the Minimanual Of The Urban Guerrilla, consisting of advice on how to disrupt and overthrow authority with an aim to revolution. He also wrote For the...
(1911-1969)
- The Concept of the Urban Guerrilla by Ulrike Meinhof
Ulrike Marie Meinhof was a German left-wing militant. She cofounded the Red Army Faction in 1970 after having previously worked as a journalist for the monthly left-wing magazine konkret. She was arrested in 1972, and eventually charged with numerous murders and the formation of a criminal...
(1934-1976)
Suggested readings:
Greene, T.N. (ed) The Guerrilla—and How to Fight Him: Selections From the Marine Corps Gazette. Frederick A. Praeger, 1964.
Molnar et al., Undergrounds in Insurgent, Revolutionary, and Resistance Warfare. Special Operations Research Office, American University, 1963.
Oppenheimer, Martin. The Urban Guerrilla. Quadrangle, 1969.